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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Battlecry! / Skirmish Units / Building Skirmish Encounters

1. Set Objectives

Source Battlecry! pg. 163
Given the large number of creatures involved in a skirmish encounter, it’s best to avoid just playing out a fight until everybody is at 0 HP. A skirmish encounter should have a specific objective! You can set up any objective that makes sense, which is usually relevant to the PCs but can sometimes be a shared objective both sides are competing to attain. Once the objective is attained or becomes impossible to complete, the encounter ends. It’s vitally important to make the objective clear to the players at the start of the encounter, usually while they’re making preparations. The more details you can give them, the better they can plan for the encounter and measure their success.

Some of the basic types of objectives you might choose from while designing your skirmish encounters are defined in the Military section of NPC Core. They are: defend, eliminate, and seize.

Defend

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
The PCs must defend a place, people, or valuable asset against enemy forces. To keep a skirmish that features a defend objective from being a battle that carries on until an entire side is defeated, you can use a timer—the PCs need to defend for 3 rounds, for example. It’s also wise to define what counts as failing to defend the objective. Some examples could entail:
  • The PCs must protect a refugee caravan. They meet their objective if they defend the caravan for 3 rounds but lose it if the raiders destroy three or more wagons.
  • Fiends are attacking a holy site, and the PCs must keep them from desecrating it. Allied clerics can seal one of four doorways each round, and the PCs can choose the order in which they do it. If all four doors are sealed, the site is safe and the objective met!
  • Enemy troops are trying to reach a teleportation portal to join a siege of a major city. The PCs must block a narrow mountain pass to delay them until the portal has closed. Blocking any of the enemy troops is a partial success toward the objective, but the more they stop, the safer the city will be.

Eliminate

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
Destroying a target could swing the tide of battle. PCs might look for all sorts of ways to achieve this objective, taking a more proactive approach than they would if they were defending. These encounters usually work best if the PCs can clearly find and identify the target they need to destroy—uncertainty can be especially annoying in a skirmish encounter. If you do want to make finding the target part of the encounter, such as by finding a cowardly enemy spellcaster and incapacitating them to end a ritual, give the PCs a limited number of clear places to search. Examples of eliminate objectives include:
  • Troops are stationed at the estate of a powerful political figurehead. Get past the guards and assassinate this leader.
  • Multiple shipments of weapons have been transported to an isolated but centrally located fort before being sent out to arm several battalions. Destroy the stockpile!
  • Siege engines are laying waste to allied forces and keeping them holed up in a crumbling castle. Disable or destroy the siege engines to give your allies the chance to rush forward and take the fight to the enemy.

Seize

Source Battlecry! pg. 164
The PCs must claim a specific place or target. This is similar to an eliminate objective but has the aim of capturing rather than destroying. The most important factor for structuring this type of encounter is figuring out whether the PCs just need to seize the objective (essentially moving from one place to another) or also return it (moving from one place to another and then back again, or to a third location instead). In the first category, they’ll face all their opposition in one series before seizing the objective. In the second, it’s often best to stage part of the opposition far enough away from the objective that there might then be a second stage to the fight after the PCs seize it—otherwise, you can position some of the opposition directly on the objective so that they can try to keep the PCs from leaving with it. Examples of seize objectives are:
  • Enemy archers have an excellent position occupying high ground. There’s a narrow approach to this high ground, and the PCs must defeat the archers to claim the position for themselves, then signal their allies.
  • The army the PCs are aligned with is slowly starving, as their supplies have been cut off. The PCs must seize a wagon of food and escort it back to camp.
  • A team of allied spies with important information has been captured. The PCs must reach the prison where they’re being held, free them from their cells, and help them escape.